


Gaige's Deathtrap

by lastoftheorder



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2019-08-02 18:56:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16310834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lastoftheorder/pseuds/lastoftheorder
Summary: Gaige has a powerful machine in her arm capable of ripping anything to shreds. Unfortunately, digistruct technology is unstable, and the 'Deathtrap' becomes her own.





	1. Problems

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so I rewrote this chapter after looking back at it, yikes! Anyhow, I cleaned it up and made it more consistent with the overall plot. Now that I'm more comfortable with the Borderlands universe, you should see an improvement. 
> 
> If you liked it before, great, but this should make it clearer and easier to read.

The Thresher writhed in pain as the vault hunters aimed up for their final hits. Maya phase-locked it, Axton had his two turrets out, and Salvador was gunzerking. Krieg was busy bashing the thing’s bleeding tentacle, and Zero seemed to be in two places at once, slashing at it. 

Gaige tried to aim at the creature, knowing that if she hit it, the whole ordeal would be over. Terramorphous the invincible would officially become ‘vincible’. Naturally, she missed.

“Screw this!” she shouted, dismissing her pistol and bringing up her metal arm instead. She called something deep inside of her and sent it out, making a great robot digistructed itself before her. 

Deathtrap- the greatest robot alive was in her control. It knew what she needed, and blasted the monster with a current of electricity. The great thresher gave one final, jerky movement before it gave up, collapsing to the ground

Eridium spilled out like a fountain, along with cash, ammunition, and very beautiful weapons of every ranking. Gaige ran towards a purple-ranked shotgun, but soon collapsed to her knees screaming. Her arm was burning her. 

Salvador tried to pick up the shotgun instead, but Deathtrap slid between him and the shotgun

“Don’t even think about it.” Gaige grimaced, rolling her metal arm, “I just got some corrosion in my bionic arm. I can still fight you for all of the good loot.” 

“I was just grabbing it for you.” Salvador said. 

“Yeah right,” Gaige rolled her eyes, picking up the gun and some of the cash lying beside it. The pain subsided, and Deathtrap faded back into its digistruct machine.

“Are you doing okay, little lady?” Axton said, “It looked like you were in quite a lot of pain back there.” 

“I’m not your ‘little lady’. I’m a woman of badassery and science, I’ll have you know. Now, if you really were worried about me, you’d hand me that thick wad of cash hanging out of your pockets.” Gaige said. 

“Not on your life, gorgeous.” 

“Hey, anyone want a blue assault rifle? It’s Torgue!” Maya called out, which dispersed the small group back to raiding the area. Gaige forgot all about the pain she was in, and quickly joined her friends.

Once they got back to Sanctuary, they went to Moxxi’s and shared a couple of drinks. 

“Come on, you guys would be dead without me,” Gaige laughed, patting her metal arm, “If it weren’t for DT, you would all be an oversized threshers dinner!” 

“Hm, an interesting thought. Considering you can’t hit the broad side of the barn, I wouldn’t say you were the most valuable fighter.” Axton said. 

“I can too hit a barn. I can hit anything I want to.”

“Care to prove it with a game of darts? Loser pays up ten thousand.” 

“Against you? Any day. Just don’t make me go up against Zero.” Gaige said. She pulled out her pistol and saw the two bullets left inside of it. All she needed to do was reload, and the game was hers. Discord had a way of letting her land her bullets however she needed, plus the knack for things to ricochet around her. 

“You certainly got a big mouth for someone so little. Care to put your money where your mouth is, little lady?” Axton asked. 

“I wanna get a couple of drinks first.” Gaige said. 

“That’s supposed to help you?” Axton asked.

“Nah, Moxxi won’t let me drink them; I’m just getting them for you,” she gave Axton a cheeky wink and went over to the bar where Salvador was trying to coax Zero to take off his helmet to do shots with him. 

“Come on, amigo, it’s fun!” Salvador pleaded. 

“I have no need for/ alcohol induced recreation/ I will take my leave.” Zero said. He stood up and walked past Gaige, suddenly grabbing her arm. He stared at her for a moment, and then quickly let go of her and walked out of Moxxi’s bar. Gaige shook herself. 

“Man that guy’s creepy sometimes.” she mumbled to herself. She waved down Moxxi, slapping down a few crisp bills.

“Two house brews,” she said.

“Sorry, Sugar, I don’t serve minors” Moxxi said. 

“I thought the drinking age here was birth,” Gaige wrinkled her nose, “And you didn’t seem to have a problem getting me drunk for the Zaford’s wake.”  
“That- that was different,” Moxxi said. Gaige raised an eyebrow, and Moxxi growled something about needing a good tip before handing over a couple bottles. Gaige thanked her and flounced back to her table. Axton raised an eyebrow when he saw her.

“You really think you can handle the hard stuff?” he asked.   
“I can handle anything.” she said.   
“You can handle anything? Good, cause I’ve got a job for you.” Lilith walked in sat down beside them and stole Gaige’s bottle, taking a long drink. 

“What do you need?” Axton asked. 

“There’s word of a monster running around in the Oasis. I trust you guys can handle it without a problem.” 

“You know it!” Gaige flicked her wrist to summon deathtrap, “now give me back my drink!”

Gaige stopped abruptly. Her vision was growing dark as Deathtrap began digistructing. There was a flaming pain shooting through her metal arm, and as soon as Deathtrap fully digitized, Gaige passed out. 

“What should we do, should we take her to Zed?” Maya’s voice sounded fuzzy to Gaige as she began regaining consciousness.

“And what, have him kill her?” Lilith asked. “Get Tannis.” 

Gaige opened her eyes. She was being held up by “What happened?” Gaige asked. The pain shot through her arm again, and she bit her lip to stop herself from screaming. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. Everything hurt too much. 

“Hold her steady.” Tannis’ voice cut through the pain and the darkness, “This isn’t the best place for experimental surgery, but I don’t see how we have another choice.” 

“Oh my God she’s awake.” Maya said. Gaige tried to open her eyes. The world felt clammy and sick, and everything was fading in and out of consciousness. There was a sharp crack, and the pain quickly brought her back to rational thinking. Her eyes snapped open and she howled, trying to pull herself away from whatever was causing this distress. Salvador grabbed her torso and kept her down. Gaige looked over to her metal arm. Axton had his foot pressing it to the ground while Tannis was pulling it out.

The pain was worse than it had been when she cut off her own arm. The wires should never be exposed like this. 

“STOP!” Gaige tried to scream, but it came out like a sob.  
“Axton, I need you to help me pull this out.” Tannis said. Gaige lunged at Tannis with her other arm before Maya got a hold of it. Axton knelt down beside Tannis and pulled. 

It was agony. She howled and tried to thrash around as they continued tugging until the arm popped out with a sickening crack. Gaige blacked out once more. 

When Gaige woke up, she was on a surgical table in the middle of the crimson raiders HQ. She looked to her left and saw nothing but cut tubes and wires dangling from her shoulder socket. Her mechanical arm was gone. 

“WHAT DID YOU DO!” she screamed. Tannis, who had been talking to someone else, gave her a withering look.

“I’m certain your powers of deduction are more than enough to infer what has been done to you,” Tannis said flatly. Gaige looked at her arm, and she felt bile rise to her throat.

“Where’s...Where’s my arm? Where’s Deathtrap?” Gaige whimpered.

“Easy there tiger. I’m certain you’re wanting some answers, and we’ll get them to you just as soon as we know them ourselves.” Lilith said. 

“I don’t care about that! I want DT!” Gaige yelled. 

“Don’t worry, your funny little robot is right here.” Tannis said, holding up the severed arm. Gaige dropped to the ground again and she eyed the arm carefully.

“Why did you rip it off of me?” Gaige demanded.

“Gaige, let me explain,” Lilith said, “Come with me and we’ll talk.” Lilith said. 

“Not without DT.” Gaige said. Maya and Lilith exchanged worried looks.

“Gaige, I don’t know if that’s the best idea.” Maya said. 

“Just come with me and we’ll get you up to speed, I promise.” Lilith said. Grudgingly, Gaige obeyed. 

Lilith’s room was small but private. There were several guns hanging from the wall, as well as a chest full of bullets. A few bloody psycho masks were put in corners, and the walls were plastered with Crimson Raider advertisements, specifically ones featuring Roland. More importantly, however, was a large mirror. Pandora residents weren’t known for their vanity, so mirrors didn’t seem to appear very often. Gaige was sure Moxxi had a hand mirror somewhere, but this was the first time she had seen a full mirror since Eden five.   
“Stand in front of the mirror and tell me what you see.” Lilith said. Gaige stood in front of it and looked at herself. She had long, wild hair surrounding her still youthful face, although there was markings over it to remind her of the lifestyle she had been living for the past year or so. Her body was wiry and strong, and leaner than it probably should have been. After all, it was hard to eat on Pandora, especially when the average meal consisted of skag, skag, and more skag. Most prominently, however, was the distinct lack of limb on her left side. The clothing was ripped up right beside it, showing bulging veins glowing the distinct digistruct green. They slowly faded into the rest of the skin, but it was strange to look at. 

“Gaige-” Lilith began. She wouldn’t meet Gaige’s eyes. 

“Why did my friends remove my arm?” Gaige asked. 

“...Gaige, we all know how remarkable Deathtrap is. He’s a feat of science that very few could surpass or even dream of achieving.”

“Are you kidding? That didn’t stop Marcie from copying it.” Gaige said bitterly. Lilith knelt down and put her hands on Gaige’s shoulders.

“With a defective copy that it took a team of her father’s scientists to recreate, with your blueprints. You were brilliant, and are probably one of the best robot builders on all of Pandora, and you’re certainly the best mechromancer.” 

“Then why did you take my Deathtrap?” Gaige demanded. 

“You built a robot that would have a living component, an attachment to its user and an unprecedented mix of flesh and robotics, and the design was nearly perfect.” Lilith said. Gaige narrowed her eyes. 

“What do you mean ‘Nearly’ perfect?” she said. Lilith bit her lip. 

“Gaige, Deathtrap was killing you.”

Gaige tore away from Lilith as fast as she could.   
“No, DT isn’t killing me, it protects me. It kills everything else.” she shouted. 

“The digistruct has been using your life force to create Deathtrap, it’s been slowly killing you for months. Every time you summon Deathtrap, it takes a part of you and you can’t sustain it anymore. That’s why you passed out.”

“OR are you all just jealous that I’ve made the coolest robot in the world? I bet it’s just that, you guys figured out how to make a quick buck selling my designs just like Marcie!” Gaige was furious. She turned and tried to run off, but Lilith quickly phased in front of her in a burst of fire.   
“Gaige, you have to listen! You can’t go running off through Pandora anymore, it’s not safe.” 

“Oh, so I’m not safe with DT, but I’m not safe without him.” Gaige spat at her.

“Look, we’ll figure something out. Hammerlock is already looking through his supply of spare parts to get you a new arm, and the other vault hunters are already pitching in to get you a nice big gun so that you can become a scavenger or something. And if you don’t want to be a scavenger, Scooter can always use a new assistant.” 

“I’m not a scavenger, I’m a vault hunter.” Gaige said, “And I’m not going to give up this battle.” 

“I like the fire in your eyes, kid. I just hope they don’t burn you up.” Lilith sighed. It was going to be a long road to recovery for the fiery mechromancer.


	2. Independant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaige isn't taking to her new life well. Oblivious of the support she has around her, she takes her fate into her own hands, and it gets her into a lot of trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, this chapter has also been updated (march 15, 2019) to iron out some plot inconsistencies. Not much has changed, but be sure to check it out.

Gaige was not taking to losing her arm well. She had begun failing in fights. She spent more time prone on the ground than she actually did in battle. Her new arm was heavy and ached against her shoulder, not to mention that it was slower and wasn’t as strong. It was with heavy hearts that the rest of the vault hunters left her behind. She was given a small, squat building all to herself in Sanctuary, but she most often found herself in Scooter’s garage.

“Just let me access your tools, please!” Gaige begged Scooter. He scratched the back of his head. 

“I don’t mind you helping me out, Gaige, but I find that some of my tools go missing whenever you’re around, and you seem to always be looking at my car’s digistruct station.” he said. 

“It’s just because it’s such a work of art. You’ve done great work, I mean, are those new hyperthrust converters?” Gaige said. Scooter frowned.

“I don’t want you to touch my baby to make your new death trap.” 

“Come on, Scoot! I wouldn’t hurt her! With your help, I could make a new and better Deathtrap, one that doesn’t kill me slowly.” 

“Tannis is already working on a solution, and she’s a genius. She found out in less than five minutes that my digistruct machine wasn’t working because I tried to digistruct a burrito. If there’s an answer out there, she’s sure to find it. Now please get off of my blueprints for a new truck.” 

Gaige jumped off of the table and dusted herself off. 

“Fine, if you’re not going to help me, then I’m going to do it myself,” she said. 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Gaige,” he said. 

“Watch me try,” she said. She left his garage in a huff, ripping off the stupid, heavy arm and leaving it on the ground. She didn’t need an arm! She didn’t need teammates! She would be fine on her own.

Gaige decided that she was going to leave She needed to find a place that would be safe enough for her to survive, but not something that had been raided and torn apart. She needed something that would have the materials she needed without a high cost. She pulled out her shotgun and made sure it was loaded before putting her destination into the fast travel station.

It felt like her body was bubbling away and falling, and suddenly she was standing in front of the pit that once housed Sanctuary. She grinned; last time she’d been here she whipped the floor with the bandits, and got a decent shield from it. Hopefully she would be able to find tools to help her rebuild Deathtrap here.

Gaige had barely turned the corner when a large psycho jumped out of a shack.

“We’ve got a girlie!” it screamed. Gaige kissed her barrel and began to fire. She only clipped him, but she was shorter, lighter, and faster than anyone else. She underfilled her ammunition, ran with less, and could reload and recharge within only seconds. Even though she barely scratched him, she was ready and reloaded before he took another step towards her. He was down before he could even touch her with his buzzaxe.

There was a couple of bucks tucked into his belt. Gaige grabbed them as well as some shotgun ammo she had found nearby. When she loaded them into her gun, she found she was shaking.

“Get a grip, Gaige. You can do this.” She told herself. She breathed in deeply and continued along, keeping an eye out for any traps or squatters If she was lucky, she could sneak through without getting suddenly attacked. She pulled out an assault rifle with a scope and looked around. 

As long as I avoid the east side, shouldn’t have to deal with too many squatters, she thought. She decided to start heading out towards the west side, sneaking around and hanging back if bandits got too close.

Is this how zero feels like? Because it is BORING!

She managed to find a half busted scanner unit and a rusty screwdriver. She opened her lunchbox and placed the scanner inside, and then tucked the screwdriver into her belt. 

“What have we here? A little mouse has come to play in our home.” Gaige jumped as she heard the cold voice of a bandit behind her. She spun around to find a marauder carelessly slinging a huge semi-auto tediore over his shoulder. Next to him was a huge badass goliath. It would take a lot to take him down, assuming that she didn’t enrage him.  
Gaige looked around to take it all in, and noticed that there were at least a dozen psychos hiding among the broken sheetrock slabs and scrap metal surrounding the area that she hadn’t noticed before. Gaige instinctively went to summon Deathtrap, only to find that she was missing both him, and her replacement arm. She groaned at her lack of foresight.

“What do we do with mice, boys?” the marauder shouted. The goliath jumped up.

“EXTERMINATE IT!” he shouted. Gaige looked around for the clearest path and bolted.

“Smaller, lighter, faster. I can do this,” she told herself. She jerked to the sidegoliath came rushing towards her, knocking over scrap metal as he went. Her back hit a wall of sheet metal, and a midget psycho leapt onto her shoulders, cheering wildly, and started riding her as she tried to get rid of him.

Gaige snatched and grabbed at him, trying desperately to rip him off while the Goliath, confused at missing his target, turned around to find her.Gaige rammed her shoulders into the nearest cement slab, which seemed to startle the midget enough for it to release its grip. Gaige wasted no time firing a shot into its head. 

The Goliath was rearing up to charge again. Gaige ducked under the small opening in some sheet metal and scrunched up against the cement block. The Goliath roared and began ripping away parts of the sheet metal and cement that was concealing her while Gaige, with shaking hands, fired shotgun shells at both the Goliath and the midget psychos trying to crawl through the new openings created.

“This is how I die, cowering away while a Goliath rips me apart. No one even knows I’m here. What will my dad think?” Gaige thought bitterly, “I’m an idiot!”

Blood splattered on Gaige’s face as she caught a psycho point-blank with her shotgun. They were getting closer; soon she wouldn’t be able to hide from them. She hastily wiped it away blood as she fired at the next psycho crawled through to get her. 

“I’m going to die.”

Suddenly, there was a loud volley of gunfire and explosions coming from outside of her cave. There was shouting and screaming, and the Goliath froze from what he was doing as his chest exploded. The Goliath fell over, and Gaige could see who her hero’s were. Axton and Maya glared at her. Zero had a frowny face emoji on his screen, Salvador was counting money he had found off of one of the psychos, and Krieg was simply hacking up another Psycho’s arm. 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Axton said, offering Gaige his hand. She took it reluctantly as he pulled her out of her hole.

“I think I was trying to be done being useless. How did you find me?” she demanded. 

“Scooter told us.” Maya said, “You didn’t exactly leave discreetly, and your fast travel info was still the most recent. If you wanted to hide, you should have at least scrambled it. 

“Why did you come after me? I’m nothing more than a liability to you guys.” Gaige spat. 

“Maybe because we’re teammates?” Maya asked, “And friends?” 

“You guys kicked me out of the vault hunter group!” Gaige said. 

“No, we suggested that you train so that you can hold your own without Deathtrap. And now you’re throwing a tantrum like a spoiled child. You need to grow up, Gaige.” Maya’s eyes burned fiercely.

“In my town, we would have whipped you senseless by now,” Salvador added before going back to counting his cash. Maya shot him a dirty look. He wasn’t helping her case.

“Look, Gaige, you’re a decent fighter, but you relied too much on Deathtrap. You’re still powerful, but it just needs to be honed. It wasn’t a punishment; we just didn’t want to be shot with a stray anarchy bullet.” Maya said, “If you worked on your accuracy, we’d be more than happy for you to join us again.” The other vault hunters nodded. 

Gaige, however, wasn’t listening to their argument and reasoning. She was instead thinking about she couldn’t even fight off a couple of bandits and psychos, and that she left a conspicuous enough trail that they had found her. She needed to cover her tracks better. 

“Just practice in Marcus’s shooting gallery for a bit, learn how to fight without relying on Deathtrap, go shoot some bullymongs where the bandits are half-frozen anyways and you’ll be back with us before we even get the chance to go on Hammerlock’s crazy vacation home.” Axton said, and then with a grumble added, “Where there are no chicks to admire me, either.” 

“Don’t worry, Hammerlock would be more than happy to!” Salvador laughed. 

With an embarrassed Gaige in tow, they headed back to Sanctuary. 

*******************************************************************************

After they got back to Sanctuary, Lilith pulled Maya to the side.

“What are we going to do with her?” Lilith asked.

“I don’t know.” Maya said, “But we’re not her parents. We can’t keep chasing after her.” 

“She doesn’t even realize how worried sick everyone is for her.” 

“I think she believes since this is Pandora there aren’t any friendships; just contracts.” 

“Well think about the life she lived before here; she had her parents, and that’s it. Then she comes here and faces betrayal at every turn, from Angel to bandits. That can’t be healthy.” 

“It’s not our job to fix her,” Maya said.

“Yeah, but I don’t want to see her dead.” Lilith said, “I’ve seen too much, and she’s just a kid.” 

There was a loud shout, and a blur ran past them. 

“Gaige, stop!” Axton shouted. They realized that Gaige had gotten to the fast travel station and was already gone. 

“Damn that girl is fast.” Axton said, huffing as he got to them, “why didn’t one of you grab her?” 

“It’s fine, we’ll just trace her signal again,” Maya said. Axton went up to the fast travel station. 

“She’s scrambled it,” he said. 

“Damnit.” Lilith said, “She is fast.” 

“Are we going to go after her?” Axton asked. Maya shrugged. 

“She’ll come back when she’s ready, or she won’t. Those are the consequences for her actions. We can’t control her, but I hope we’ll be able to see her again.”


	3. Runaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gagie finds herself stranded without her friends.
> 
> Axton keeps searching for Gaige even after the other Vault Hunters give up hope in finding her.

At first, the Vault hunters tried to find their friend, but as the days went by, they moved on. As did the rest of Sanctuary. After several weeks, they considered an attempt to find her a lost cause. A one-armed girl running around in Pandora with no viable survival skills? Gone. The loss was felt across Sanctuary as the spunky girl disappeared from their lives. However, just like with previous losses they were forced to move on, albeit with their lives that much darker. 

Four months had gone by, but Axton found himself still looking around every bandit camp and skag pit, hoping to catch a glimpse of the girl. 

“Even a body would be better than this,” he thought to himself. His heart was heavy. Gaige might have been immature, impulsive, and a little insane, but so was he! He had probably been hit the hardest from her running away, although he wouldn’t show or admit it. She was his closest friend, helping him install upgrades to his turret, defending him on the field, having Deathtrap replenish his shield. She wasn’t afraid to tease or joke with him, either, and they worked really well together on the field. 

“Hey, Amigo, let’s get these parts to Ellie,” Salvador said, pulling Axton from his thoughts.

“Just a second, I want to make sure we’ve looted everything,” Axton said. Salvador rolled his eyes. Axton turned a corner in the bandit camp and found a set of unopened lockers. He opened each of them, finding a handful of cash and a box of pistol bullets. He slammed the last one shut in anger. 

“Why are you so upset?” Salvador asked, “You found some good stuff.”

“I just… I guess I was hoping for something more,” he said. Like a skull with hearts doodled on it. Maybe a pistol spray painted purple. Maybe just a stolen lunchbox. 

“Bandits in the dust don’t normally keep nice things, I don’t know why you had your hopes so high. So, can we go to Ellies yet, or…” Salvador asked. Axton nodded. They jumped into their nearby car and sped off, mixing sand and gasoline underneath their hot rubber. 

They were on a quest from Moxxi asking if they would participate in a race to help take down a dude named Bossanova. Due to not having the right type of vehicle, they needed to outfit Scooter’s standard racer into something a bit more powerful. Scooter was unfortunately busy, and sent them to Ellie’s instead, but not before giving them a grocery-list of parts they needed to scavenge from nearby bandit camps. 

Ellie was a little startled to see them when they arrived. 

“Oh, heeeeyyy guys. It’s always nice to see you two cuties, but do you think you could give me some warning in the future?” she asked, scratching behind her head, “You see, I didn’t even get a chance to pick this place up at all. It’s a bit of a mess, really.” 

Axton and Salvador glanced around. There were a few toolboxes left out, but it really wasn’t anything to worry about. Salvador nudged Axton in the ribs and grinned. Axton just rolled his eyes. Ellie wasn’t that into him. Was she? He shrugged off it off. 

“Can we get your help with something, we need to get into something called the Death Race, and we need our car to be faster, and stronger, than anyone else's.” Axton said, “Scooter gave us some parts and…” 

He was cut off as a girl with pigtails came through the backdoor with a clipboard in her hands, one of the said hands being mechanical...

“Hey, Ellie, I wanted you to know that the afterburn thrust is a little on the sensitive side, so I’m cranking up the exhaust rec a teensy bit more, mkay?” Gaige looked up and her eyes grew wide as she saw the guests. The clipboard clattered to the floor.

It was as if the whole world froze for Axton. He wanted to say something- anything- to show Gaige just how relieved he was that she was alive. He willed himself to move, but he stood there, slack-jawed and still.

Salvador didn’t have the same problem; he ran to Gaige before she even had time to react and scooped her up. 

“CHICKA! You live!” he said, swinging her around. She laughed a little and he put her down gingerly.

“And you still smell just as bad, Sal,” she said, giving him a proper hug. She pulled away and put a hand behind her neck, blushing.

“Sooooo… You guys found me, huh?” she said. Axton cleared his throat and struggled to find the words he wanted to say. How grateful he was she was alive, how much he missed her, how sad they all were when she left...

“You....” Axton began trying to find the words, and suddenly he felt a flash of anger, “You, young lady, are in so much frickin trouble. How could you just leave like that? You had as all worried sick, and after your little incident with the bandits at the sanctuary hole…. Do you realize what we thought? We thought you were dead, or worse! You absolute moron!” 

“I- I didn’t mean to be gone for so long, but I…” her bottom lip quivered. 

“But you what? Thought it was better to hide? To run away and leave us to pick up the pieces like a Goddamn toddler?” Axton said, “Do you realize how much I worried about you? And you couldn’t even spare me a text?”

“I didn’t... I’m sorry…” she whispered. Her expression was pitiful, and Axton’s anger melted away as quickly as it came. 

“Yeah, yeah, now come over here and give me a hug, dammit.” he opened up his arms and she ran to him, burying her face in his uniform and sniffled. Axton brushed a hand through her hair and held her close to him. 

“Don’t do that again, please,” he said, holding her tight. She nodded, and finally, he released her. She brushed away a tear. 

“Man, don’t tell anyone I was such a friggin baby and cried when I saw you,” she said. Salvador laughed, his hands already flashing across his echo-com

“Too late!” he said. 

“Well, I’d better get going. I have some supplies I need to pick up, and I have a feeling this place is going to get crowded REAL soon. Gaige, don’t make too much of a mess of anything, ya hear?” Ellie said. Gaige nodded, and Ellie left through the side door. 

The fast travel station lit up, and two familiar forms appeared. Maya and Krieg came in. Maya hesitated upon seeing the Mechromancer. 

“You weren’t lying.” she said, “She’s really here.” 

Krieg shouted something about poison and pigtails, but if the other vault hunters knew what was going through his head, they would have known the sane part of him was quite relieved and almost… happy.

The digistruct flashed again and Zero came through. He gave Gaige a solemn nod, then pulled up a chair.

“There is a story/ you must now tell us/ we are all here,” he said.

“What do you guys want to hear?” Gaige asked. Axton put a hand on her shoulder.

“Everything, pipsqueak,” he said. She sighed and combed a finger through her hair. 

“I suppose everyone better pull up a chair, this may take a while.” she sighed. 

************************************************************************

Gaige began her story where they last saw her; running away. She slammed her foot on Axton’s, wrenching herself free from his grip and bolted as fast as she could towards the fast travel station, her mind racing. 

She needed to leave, fast, and she couldn’t have them following her. There was only one command she could put in fast enough to get away before anyone could catch her. She plugged in ‘scramble’ to the system, knowing she could end up anywhere (Although there were failsafes to prevent her from going to any instant-death areas). She could end up in the middle of a bandit camp for all she knew, but she pressed the enter button anyways and puffed away into a flurry of blue. 

As it turned out, she ended up in the likeliest place she could have been. She was in the middle of the freaking desert. And, due to the randomization matrix, she ended up at a one-way fast travel station. She couldn’t transport from there. 

Gaige’s echo buzzed wildly, and she promptly ripped out the battery. She was scared. She couldn’t really explain everything she felt. Her heart raced and she was panicking. She ran to a small outcropping of rocks and curled into a ball. 

What had she done? She wanted to scream. She wanted Deathtrap there with her. Who was she without her killer robot? She honestly didn’t know anymore. She was no longer the nerdy girl in school, she was no longer a mechromancer, and now? Now she was no longer Vault Hunter. It was almost too much to bear. 

After about an hour of wallowing in pity, she realized she needed to do something, and fast. Her pride wouldn’t allow her to return to Sanctuary or ask for help, but she needed to do something to avoid death in the Pandoran Desert. She put the battery back into her echo, but disabled the call function. This way she could enable maps and waypoints without having to hear each and every phone call. She needed to find water, food, and shelter. She scrolled through the map and saw that the nearest water source was several miles out, past a group of skag dens. She frowned knowing that if she ran into a group of skags now, they’d probably make her their lunch. However, the only other path would take at least twice as long, or she could climb over a mountain, which she certainly couldn’t do with only one arm. 

Should she risk Skags or dehydration? She reasoned with herself that since the night was coming, she might be able to sneak past the skag den without them seeing her, and if they did, at least she would have some sort of meal if she survived. 

*********************************  
Salvador laughed.

“You’re telling me you faced a skag den disarmed?” he said. Gaige shrugged. 

“No, there actually weren’t any skags there,” she said, “It was only when I got to the water source that I ran into trouble.” 

“Why?” Maya asked. 

“That’s where all the skags from the den were.”   
****************************************************************************************

Gaige was pinned. A rabid skag was on top of her, slashing at her abdomen. Adrenaline surged in her, and she grabbed a screwdriver from her belt and plunged it into the thing’s eye. Blood squirted out and the skag howled, pulling away and tossing its head around, trying to get the object out of its eye. This gave Gaige the chance to reach into her backpack and pulled out a pistol to quickly finish the job. With that done, she slumped down to the small pool of water and lapped it up in her hands. It tasted sour. 

Next, she took care of the bad gash in her side. She washed it out with water, then took off her jacket to make a bandage. She tied it tightly around her waist, hoping that the pressure would be enough to stop the bleeding. She was surrounded by dead skags and bitter water, a nasty wound in her side, and nowhere to go. She started crying.  
*************************************************************************************************  
“On the bright side I got a badass scar from it,” Gaige pulled up the side of her shirt and showed off the pink, puckered skin. Axton’s brow furrowed. 

“Why didn’t you use a healing hypo?” he demanded. 

“I guess I didn’t think to ask the skags if they had any, dad,” she said. He crossed his arms and grumbled something about her watching her tone. 

“Anyhow, that’s when I realized there was a catch-a-ride nearby; God bless Scooter for putting those things in the most random places.” she said, “I climbed in and drove myself to the nearest vending machine depot, which happened to be right by Friendship Gulag, and I realized two things; the first is that if you don’t get healing hypos soon enough, they don’t do much to stop scarring, and secondly, I needed help. I couldn’t do it alone. I realized I needed an Ally and a place to stay if I was going to fix myself up. The Hodunks were the closest settlement, but they kinda still hated our guts after starting that whole ‘clan war’ thing, and if I went to Overlook, I would be in Zaford territory. So I came to Ellie’s.” 

“What stopped her from telling us about you?” Maya asked. 

“I told her what was going on, and how I needed space, and she said she went through the same thing leaving Moxxi.” Gaige said, “Beside’s, Ellie’s a bro. As long as I helped her out in her garage, she’d give me that shed in back for me to live in and I could use her tools and workshop.” 

“So, what happened next? It’s been four months; there’s got to be more to this story,” Axton said. 

“Not really,” Gaige admitted, “I made myself a new arm and worked on a new deathtrap prototype, but once I used it- I didn’t realize how much DT had been draining me until I plugged it back in. I got so caught up in being angry at you guys that I was blind to what it was doing to me. So I dismantled it, took the parts like anarchy and discord circuits and found a way to hook it up to myself without it, you know, killing me. I still couldn’t find a way to bring deathtrap back, though. Sometimes I miss him,” Gaige paused for a moment, looking down at her arm sadly. She shook her head and looked back up.

“Then I hunted local bandits for practice; got better at my aim that way. I always meant to contact Sanctuary again, but I guess I was just scared of the consequences. Then Ax and Sal showed up, and here we are.” she shrugged.

“You’re not going to do it again, right?” Maya said. 

“She’d better not,” Axton grumbled. Gaige shook her head. 

“No, I’m not. It’s time to face consequences for my actions; I can’t just run away from everything.” 

“So you’re coming home with us?” Salvador asked. Gaige gave a hesitant nod.

“Yeah, I just need to pack and talk to Ellie,” she said. 

Axton jumped to his feet. 

“You talk to Ellie, I’ll pack for you!” he said. 

“Me too!” Salvador grinned. 

“Let’s visit the flea markets of pain!” Krieg said, which they all took to mean he would join them. The men left, leaving Gaige, Zero, and Maya behind. 

“You really hurt Ax, leaving like that. You’re one of his closest friends,” Maya said.

“I know, I messed up.” Gaige said, “But I’m ready to make things right again.” 

“You’d better.” Maya said, “Now, I’m going to help the boys, so they don’t ruin anything.” And with that, she left as well. That left Gaige and Zero. 

“Are you going to lecture me?” she asked. Zero shook his head. 

“I’m here to warn you/you are not out of danger/ This is just a break,” he said. 

“Geez, way to be cryptic and weird. Has anyone told you how unsettling you can be sometimes?” Gaige said, putting her hands on her hips, “Anyways, I’ll be careful from here on out, I promise. I’m like, 98% certain this arm isn’t trying to kill me.” 

“You are correct Gaige/ It will be nice to have you back/ I missed you,” he said. 

“Alright, weirdo. See you at Sanctuary.” Gaige waved and she skipped over to Ellie.

Finally, she was going to come home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm wrapping up this story in the next chapter! I'm really excited about it! Also, I'll have to put up some new warnings in regards to the finale.   
> Also, if you're enjoying this story please let me know!


	4. Digistruct Ash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Helios falls, Gaige must make the ultimate sacrifice to save her friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I always promised myself I'd finish all the works I started. This fic has changed drastically from where I first began. I'm under no illusions that this is some sort of literary masterpiece, but it's done. I'm just grateful that I managed to finish it, despite its many, many flaws.   
> I'm glad it's done.

Life settled into a state of normal for a little while. Gaige was Vault Hunting again, although missing many of her old skills. Sure, she could still cause a lightning storm to strike through her arm fuses and fry enemies, and she had her anarchy and discord systems operational, but any skill involving a ‘giant killer robot’ was gone. 

Axton worked with her the most, and he had to admit he missed Deathtraps ability to recharge and strengthen shields (Not that he was ever going to tell Gaige). He did approach her asking if she could just rebuild deathtrap in a compact digiform, as he did with his turret, but she just shook her head. 

“Deathtrap was part of me, he needed my energy to come alive. I’ve been working on another killer robot, but he won’t be able to do the same stuff that DT did, and I wouldn’t be able to carry him with me,” she told, “Don’t worry though, one day I’ll figure it out, it just won’t be...soon.” She wrinkled her nose and began tweaking at her arm. 

“You’ve changed, you know,” Axton said. Gaige snorted. 

“I sure hope I have,” she said.

And that was that. Axton knew better than to bring it up again. Even though Gaige insisted how much she had grown, he knew she still hurt. She knew she was weaker, but he admired her tenacity as she kept moving forward. 

Then the world fell apart. 

Gaige was tinkering with Axton’s sabre turret in her small workspace, trying to give it the AI he asked for only a few days earlier when the sky began to shake. Gaige stopped what she was doing and slipped the deactivated sabre turret into her lunchbox and headed outside. 

She looked up to the sky and her eyes went wide. Helios was falling. Pieces were being ripped apart in the sky, and it looked like one would fall right on top of Sanctuary. 

Gaige ran to the fast travel station at the center of town, only to find a large crowd of people gathered around it, angrily yelling. 

“What’s going on?” she demanded, grabbing the nearest person’s arm.

“The systems are jammed- overloaded! We’re all going to die!” he wailed. Gaige let him go. Did this mean the fast travel systems were unavailable? She looked at the frenzied people and her heart sank. At least Sanctuary had some pretty powerful shields that could probably take the brunt of the force, as long as Scooter was there to maintain them. 

Except Scooter was doing something in Hollow Point last time Gaige was in touch with him, talking excitedly about meeting two girls and building them a rocket with Janey Springs. And if he was still in Hollow Point, and the fast travel system was jammed...They were stuck without their Engineer. 

Except Moxxi was talented with engineering. She could power the shields or help with the engines if Lilith needed to transport all of Sanctuary again. 

As if it could read her thoughts, her echo lit up with an incoming call. 

“Little annoying girl, are you familiar with Sanctuary’s shield systems?” Tannis asked. 

“Uh, not really…”

“How fast can you learn?” Tannis asked. 

“Gaige, are you there? We need your help!” Lilith’s voice interrupted Gaige’s answer, “Scooter’s gone, and Moxxi can’t handle it right now. Either I need you to work on the engines or helping with the shields, ‘cause part of Helios is going to hit us HARD, and unless we have someone maintaining shields, Sanctuary’s going to be crushed.” 

“The engines are out of the question…” Gaige said, her mind spinning. Sanctuary was going to be crushed, and everyone was going to die. All of her friends and companions gone, as if it were some final act of vengeance from Handsome Jack. She had to do something. 

Gaige couldn’t work with the shields herself; Scooter’s programming and engineering were too complex for her to figure out in only a few minutes, but she knew of a program who could power them for her without her needing to tinker with it. 

“I have a plan,” she said, “Bring me Deathtrap.”

**************************************************************************************************

Axton nursing a beer with Salvador when Moxxi screamed. Axton looked up at her as Moxxi stared down at her echo with tears slipping down her cheeks. 

“No! No! Not my baby!” she yelled, her country accent slipping through her cultivated persona. Axton rose sharply and went to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. 

“Moxxi-?” he began. She broke into sobs and hid her face. Axton glanced over at Salvador, who offered nothing but a shrug. Axton looked around and saw all of the faces staring at the bartender, and Axton knew he had to get her out of there.

“Hey, hey, Moxxi, let’s go to the back room, okay?” he said, leading her out from behind the counter and towards the backroom door. She followed, sloppily grabbing a bottle of whiskey while still trying to hide her face. 

Axton sat beside Moxxi on a red velvet sofa and rubbed her back comfortingly. With shaky hands she tried to uncap the bottle, but her hands kept slipping. Axton took the bottle and uncapped it for her. She gave a deep swig, tears streaming down her face and sobs shaking her body. 

“He’s gone! My baby’s gone!” she wailed. 

“Who’s gone?” Axton asked. 

“My Scooter!” she said, her voice cracking and breaking. She buried her face again, crying out in despair. 

After a half an hour, Axton went and grabbed Moxxi another whiskey bottle. She was drunk and in pain, and he figured the best thing he could do for her was help her drown her sorrows. Between her broken sobs, he learned that Scooter had designed a rocket, but it had malfunctioned, and Scooter had died. 

It was a real shame, losing Scooter like that. Axton thought the man to be a little crazy, but he had a good heart. He took a swig of alcohol before passing it back to Moxxi. Her crying became quieter, her posture softer, until finally, she had passed out. Axton rolled her to her side and tucked a blanket around her. 

He stood up to stretch his legs when he heard rumbling from the sky. Was there something wrong with Sanctuary’s engines? Moxxi’s echo pinged with Lilith showing up on the screen. If Sanctuary was in trouble, someone had to answer. He reluctantly picked it up. 

“Moxxi, we have a problem. We need you running to cover the shields.

“Lilith, Moxxi’s, uh, indisposed,” Axton said. 

“What?” Lilith’s voice was harsh. 

“She’s passed out drunk. Look, whatever it is, I can help with?”

“Can you figure out Scooter’s damn engineering, for the shields or the engines? Helios is falling, Axton, and unless we can move this city and keep it running, we’re all dead.” 

“Get Gaige. She’ll know what to do.” Axton said. Lilith disconnected the echo call. Axton pinched the bridge of his nose, the weight of the situation not fully sinking in as his mind scrambled to process it all. He left through the back door of Moxxi’s bar and looked up to see Helios fall closer and closer to Pandora, pieces burning through the atmosphere. 

Axton’s echo rang, and Gaige came through. 

“Axton-I- I’m so sorry.” she said. The back of Axton’s neck prickled. 

“Gaige, what are you talking about?” he asked. He heard the telltale snick of a cybernetic limb being popped into place. The blood drained from his face, and he realized he was running towards the center of town. 

“Gaige, don’t-” he said, his heart pounding. He turned the corner and loked at the center, the scream ripping from him as Gaige raised her arm, and Deathtrap appeared. 

The chunks of Helios hit Sanctuary’s shield with a great boom, fire sizzling and crackling against the shield. Deathtrap raised his arms and sent out a beam, wrenching a scream from Gaige, a hazy blue light engulfing her and blocking her from view. 

Moments ticked by like an eternity. The shield groaned in protest, being torn down as fast as Deathtrap was repairing it. Axton stared at the scene, unaware of his own voice screaming Gaige’s name. 

Finally, the flames cleared away and the shield went down. Deathtrap faded into flex of digistruct, and the light around Gaige faded away. Axton ran to her as the young girl collapsed to the ground. He ran to her, but before he got to her, she disappeared in a burst of ash and digistruct light. He scrambled to his knees, his hands running over the ash on the ground. His hands caught the edges of Gaige’s lunchbox and he picked it up, cradling it towards his chest. 

In that moment, he knew the pain Moxxi felt. 

******************************************************************************************   
It had been months since helios had fallen. Another Vault had been opened. The other Vault Hunters had scattered across to other border planets, and Axton? Axton found himself going to Moxxi’s bar and drinking with the woman late into the night in the backroom of her bar. 

“You going to Vault Hunt again?” Moxxi asked one night. Axton shrugged, downing another glass of brandy. Moxxi tapped his sabre turret. 

“Have you used it since she worked on it?” she asked. Axton shook his head, rolling the glass in his hands. He had opened the lunchbox after the incident, finding his Sabre Turret locked inside. He knew she was working on the AI for it, but he couldn’t bear to use it.

Axton reached for the bottle of brandy, but Moxxi snatched it away. 

“No, sugar, not until you use that pretty sabre turret.” she said. Axton gave a snarl and threw out the turret, letting it digistruct in the middle of Moxxi’s back room. The turret lazily scanned the room. 

“Looks like you took care of them all, stud,” a seductive voice said, “Did you pull me out just so I can stand here and look pretty?” 

“Dammit, Moxxi,” Axton said, deactivating the turret. 

“I’ll see you later, sexy!” the voice said before disappearing. Axton ran his hands through his hair, then looked up at Moxxi, tears shining through his eyes. 

“I can tell she made it,” he said quietly. 

“She did a really good job,” Moxxi mused. 

“Yeah, she did.” Axton said, offering a weak smile. They shared a moment of silence together, when Axton cleared his throat. 

“I think… I think I’m ready. It’s time to move on.” he said, “I shouldn’t waste the last gift she gave to me.” 

Moxxi nodded, although instead she was thinking about Scooter’s garage, which she insisted remain empty and untouched, and the catch a ride systems she refused to update for fear of losing Scooter’s voice. Moxxi grabbed the stopper and closed off the brandy bottle. 

“I think it’s time we both did.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic originally began as an expression of my own desire to push people away, as I find I relate to Gaige the most in Borderlands. I put in my own desires to run away nad push away people who only wanted to help. Then, after leaving the fic alone for a long time, I realized the theme had changed, and what I needed wasn't the same. I wanted to show Gaige growing and healing. Then that changed as well, and I wanted to focus on grief. I wish I could have finished this with the orignal theme, but i'm kinda a writer who goes with whatever strikes my fancy. My other Borderlands fics should be a bit stronger, as I have a clear endpoint in mind. If there is anything you see that is promising in my writing, I encourage you to check out some of my other fics, as with practice I hope I can grow and improve. 
> 
> For the few of you who read this fic, I thank you for putting up with a fickle writer, and I wish you the best. Thank you for reading  
> -lastoftheorder


End file.
